Product sense: rethinking how Yelp search helps people choose where to eat

You are a product manager at Yelp, asked how you would make its restaurant search better. Decide what the improvement should achieve, choose which searchers you are designing for, propose and prioritize changes, and explain how you would measure success. ```hint Follow one search to a decision Pick a searcher and trace a single search from the words they type to the moment they settle on a restaurant or give up, and find the step where Yelp makes them do the most work. ``` ### Clarifying Questions - Is the goal more searches that end in a confident choice, more reservations and orders made through Yelp, or more value for restaurants that advertise in search results? - Does "search" cover the query box, filters, map view and result ranking together, or only some of them? - Can the change alter how sponsored listings are placed and labeled, or are ads out of scope? - Should the improvement target the mobile app, the website, or both? ### What a Strong Answer Covers - A goal for search tied to how Yelp creates value for diners and earns from restaurants - Searcher segments compared, with one chosen and the reason for the choice - Pain points along that segment's search journey, ranked by severity - Solutions prioritized with explicit criteria, including their effect on trust in the rankings and on restaurants with few reviews - A primary metric with guardrails, the main risks, and how the change would be tested ### Follow-up Questions - How would you run an experiment on a ranking change when restaurants pay for placement in the same results? - How would your solution treat a new restaurant that has only a handful of reviews? - If your change raised reservations but fewer people wrote reviews afterward, what would you do?